The Gender Monitoring Office (GMO) in partnership with the Belgian Embassy yesterday met with development partners to discuss how to raise awareness on accountability to gender equality and how to further improve responsiveness in their respective programmes and projects.

The workshop was held in Kigali.

Chief Gender Monitor Rose Rwabuhihi said the country considered gender equality as a necessity and prerequisite towards sustainable development.

"Rwanda considers gender equality not only as a contributor towards good governance but it is also a paramount instrument and prerequisite in achieving sustainable development,” she said.

She called on participants to continue engaging with gender mechanisms, civil society and government partners to ensure that increased accountability and support towards achieving gender equality in Rwanda is accelerated and attained.

The Belgian Ambassador to Rwanda, Arnout Pauwels, said that part of his duties included a gender action plan focusing on combating violence against women, economic opportunities for women and effective participation in decision making.

He added that though the plan seemed easy theoretically, it required partnerships to make it work.

"Every embassy abroad is required to take this (action plan) into account and so, gender equality issues generally come natural for us. While the plan is good on paper, it’s not easy to put in practice. You need a number of instruments and emphasis to make it work. The idea is to share ideas and learn from each other,” he said.

The Director of Gender in the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, Redempta Batete, said it was impossible for her ministry to take on gender equality policy roles without their support.

"The ministry is placed at a policy position where we do a lot of policy advocacy and there is no way we can undertake this important role if we do not work with you,” Batete told stakeholders who included representatives of several United Nations organisations, government and non-government institutions as well as the civil society.

"We also recognise the Belgian Technical Cooperation (BTC) for supporting projects that are geared towards poverty eradication and helping to build a world where men and women live under the rule of law, and have equal access to quality public services and are free to pursue their aspirations,” she said.

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